Transcript

9.20.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for the
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twentieth of September of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alistaina,
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with a reminder that RADIOI is for those that are
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blind to have disabilities in making it difficult to read
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or hold printed material. So I'll start with today's front page.
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Speaker 2: On the far.
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Speaker 1: Left, dea pitch for Mexico strikes met with alarm, White
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House Pentagon rebuff idea illustrating split over cartel strategy by
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Van Lemonth and Ellen Nakamora. The big article on the
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front page in the middle and large caps is the
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Space Force readies for a new kind of war branch
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emerges as a vital part of name's fighting capability amid
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competition from China Russia by Christian Davenport. And there is
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a picture of a huge American flag and it looks
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like dishes that can send or receive signals. One looks
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like it's got a cartoon character with a shovel in
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the middle of it.
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Speaker 2: I can't see what it says.
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Speaker 1: And then there is this woman standing before a huge
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screen that says fifty seventh Space a Grasser squadron, and
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there is a shield on there with a huge red
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star and olive leaves around the bottom of the shield
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and I can't see what it says at the top.
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On the right, most opposed Trump on crime pole paints
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gloomy picture for him, double digit disapproval on broad range
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of issues. Patrick Sveetder, Emily Gerkin, and Scott Clement on
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the far left, below the fold, Trump she plus deal
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on spin off of TikTok long sought agreement aims to
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get around ban on Chinese app in the US by
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Drew Harrow. And then there's a picture of those ejected
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from their city as Israel bears down and its Palestinians
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leaving Gaza City on Friday with their belongings as Israel
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ramps up its ground defensive to seize the city. Families
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who complete the journey are arriving at Almasi, a tent
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camp in the southern Gaza strip where space is limited
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and disease rampant. And there's a picture of someone with
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rolled up belongings on his shoulders. It looks like there's
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a New York T shirt on. It's just the Big
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NY and it just looks like chaos.
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Speaker 2: And then the.
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Speaker 1: Final article on the front page. Far right CDC panel
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adds hurdle to getting COVID shots. Vaccine advisors suggest consulting
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with clinician before coronavirus jab by Lena's son Rachel Rubin
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and David Avail. First article Inside the Space Force as
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it prepares for a new kind of war. And they
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are gentleman working from computer screens and chili RUMs. And
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the Force has emerged as a vital part of America's
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war machine amid increased competition from China and Russia. By
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Christian Davenport Joint Bay's Pearl Harbor, Hickham, Hawaii. It looked
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more like a satellite television dish than a weapon, but
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the antenna could fire enough electromagnet energy to fry the
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satellite twenty two thousand miles away. This was not the
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plan for Tonight's attack, however. Instead, the salvo would be
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more convert covert millisecond pulses of energy that would subtly
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disrupt the satellite signals which US military forces were using
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to communicate in this Pacific Ocean. The goal was to
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disguise the strike as a garbled connection that could be
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easily rimmied by securing a loose cable or a simple reboot,
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leaving US members frustrated without raising their suspicions. This this
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is how the next war could start, invisible shots fired
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in space on the electromagnet spectrum that could render US
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fighter jets and aircraft carriers deaf and blind, unable to communicate.
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In this case, the aggressors targeting the U S satellite
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were not from China or Russia, but rather an elite
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squadron of US Space Force guardians, mimicking how potential adversaries
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would act in a conflict that begins in orbit. The
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July Combat training exercise marked the largest one led by
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the Space Force, the highly secretive branch of the military
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with an exclusive focus on combating threats in the vast
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expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere. More than five years after it
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was created, the Space Force, the most derided and misunderstood
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branch of the US military, has emerged as a vital
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part of the American war machine as space becomes increasingly militarized.
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But even its leaders acknowledge that they are still honing
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their mission while josting with adversaries such as China that
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are moving quickly and conducting combat like operations in orbit.
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And there is a picture of two which look like
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huge observatories on top of a hill on They are
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the raydomes at canea Point Space four station in Wa Laloa, Hawaii.
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Involving more than seven hundred service members and spanning fifty
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million square miles and six time zones. The training exercise,
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called Resolute Space was observed firsthand exclusively by The Washington Post,
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a rare look into how the Pentagon is preparing to
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fight the next war in space, an area that for
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decades was regarded as a peaceful sanctuary after years of
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wrangling over its structure and fashioning uniforms a star trek
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like insignia Amato, simper Supra or always above, and even
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an anthem with the lyric There's no limit to ask guy.
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The exercise was further evidence of how the Space Force
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has matured from empasy to adolescence and it is preparing
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for war. It has hit its stride in helping the
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broader Pentagon and national security community refocus on contested domains
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and vulnerable technologies, said Michael R. Handlin, the director of
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Research at the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy Program, While it
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has made progress since its founding in twenty nineteen as
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the first new branch of the military since the Air
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Force in nineteen forty seven, the Space Force has struggled
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to gain its footing and widespread respect among most of
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the American public, in many corners of Congress and even
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inside the Pentagon, as it looks to bolster its reach
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deep into space. With a budget of just forty billion dollars,
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the relatively tiny Space Force makes up just about four
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percent of the Defense Department's budget and less than one
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percent of its personnel. It has more than fifteen thousand guardians,
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which also includes several thousand civilians. By comparison, the Army
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has nearly one million soldiers. The Space Force has been
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squeezed under the Department of the Air Force and struggled
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to distinguish itself from the other branches. Even its is unclear,
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with some arguing it needs to be focused on fighting
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war and space and others saying it should use spacecraft
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and orbotal weapons to support forces on the ground. While
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Space Force continues to evolve, many defense analysts and some
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members of Congress, fear of the United States has already
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seeded its dominance in space to China and others, the
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Space Force isn't just preparing for war, they argue, it's
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playing catch up. The Space Force has not accomplished the
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things that it needs to accomplish, said Doug Lavero, who
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serves in many roles in the National Security Space Establishment,
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including his deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space policy.
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Lavero added, we're asking them to go ahead and create
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an entirely new culture, an entirely new way to think
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about war, and entirely a new warfighting doctrine in domain.
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They're not living up to their potential, but I'm not
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surprised because they're still young. The post embedded with General
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Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's Chief of Space Operations, flying
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with him and his staff to military bases in Denver,
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Colorado Springs, Honolulu, and Maui. This article draws on interviews
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with dozens of Space Force service members of all ranks
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and specialties for missile Warning and defense GPS operators and
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electronic warfare squadrons, including guardians who used ninety feet tall
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and tennants to track satellites encased in large golf ball
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structures so that the enemy can't see where they're pointing.
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Our avarice ares have progressed so fast in the last
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few years that this is not a theoretical discussion about
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how we would support combat on the ground.
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Speaker 2: This is now a.
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Speaker 1: Real world operational challenge where we know that the space
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domain will be contested if we get into a crisis
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or conflict in the future, Saltzman said in an interview.
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Resolute Space was its biggest training exercise to date. At
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its heart were the units trained to play the role
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of the adversary called Red Teams, an apparently veiled stand
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in for hypothetical Chinese Space Force that would attempt to
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disrupt the Blue Teams satellites, meaning those run by the
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Space Force. On this day, the Red Team was a
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unit called the five hundred and twenty seventh Space Aggressors,
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which was preparing to attack the US communications satellite with
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the subtle electromatic pulses. Using less power would make it
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harder for the Blue Team to track where the interference
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was coming from. And there are pictures of the equipment
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used by Space Force units with local time zones across
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the world. This was in Colorado Springs. And then there
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are Space Force guardians making repairs to satellites. They work
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more with computers than with firearms. This might look like
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myke comms just keep coming in and going in and
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I said Major Michael Hussaw as his team prepared to
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battle the Blue Team that evening and leave them wondering
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what the heck is happening. Maybe I need to power cycle.
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There's a cable that's loose. If the Blue Team was
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unable to detect the interference or where it came from,
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that would be fine for now.
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Speaker 2: The goal was to improve so that.
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Speaker 1: If they faced a similar situation in combat, they would
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be ready. We love to make the Blue Team sweat,
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Hussa said. Space Force officials would not say which country
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or countries the Red Team represented. They said only that
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the exercise was focused on a conflict playing out in
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the Pacific, where China has projected power in preparation for
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what many fear would be an invasion of Taiwan. One
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of the units participating as a Red Team in the exercise,
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with the Space four's fifty seventh Space Aggressors, its mission
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patch beatures a red panda native to China, with the
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squadron's name spelled in Chinese characters. Oh, that was what
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I was trying to describe earlier. Okay, on that shield
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with the olive branches at the bottom, they were like
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little red pandas in a red star and the name
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in Chinese characters. Fifty seventh Space aggress the squadron the threat.
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As early as two thousand and one, a commission created
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by the soon to be Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
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warned of a space pearl harbor, growing dependents on activities
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in space, and vulnerabilities. Their demanded space be recognized as
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a top national security priority, it said, But despite decades
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of warnings, in what many defense analysts now say was
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a strategic blunder, the Pentagon did little to treat space
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as a contested environment. China, Russia, and others have demonstrated
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that they can take out or interfere with the satellites
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operated by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies that provide the
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nation's missile warning and tracking, reconnaissance, and communications. China in particular,
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has moved rapidly to build an arsenal of space related
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weapons at a pace that Saltzman has called mind boggling.
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In two thousand seven and again in twenty thirteen, China
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fired missiles to space that demonstrated it can destroy satellites
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in orbit. Over the past decade, it has gone from
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operating about forty satellites to more than one thousand, many
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of which are used for military purposes. It operates a
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space plane that, like the Pentagon's X thirty seven B spacecraft,
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stays in orbit for months at the time performing highly
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secretive maneuvers. In recent years, China tested hypersonic vehicles that
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are designed to maneuver at speeds greater than MAC five
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through space before re entering Earth's atmosphere. In twenty twenty two,
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China alarmed US officials when one of its satellites grappled
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a dead satellite in its BIDU network, the counterpart to
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the USB UPS system, and pulled it out of its
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orbit to a distant spot in space known as a
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graveyard orbit. If China could do that to one of
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its dead satellites, he could also attack the satellites the
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US users for missile warning, GPS or communications. More recently,
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several of China's satellites have engaged in what Space Force
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officials have called dog fighting, joasting with US satellites at
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high speeds and close ranges. The Pagentagon is also concerned
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about Russia. In twenty twenty one, it fired a missile
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that destroyed a dead satellite, creating more than fifteen hundred
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pieces of debris that threatened the International Space Station. During
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the war with Ukraine, it has utinely jammed the signals
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coming from US from the US GPS satellites, and last year,
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US officials disclosed that USA had also been operating a
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satellite as a test bed for a potential nuclear weapon
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that could destroy thousands of satellites operating in Earth's orbit.
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About a decade ago, Pentagon leaders, including General John Heighten,
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who eventually became the first commander of the Air Force
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Space Command, started talking more openly about space as.
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Speaker 2: A war fighting domain. There was a levetle of frustration.
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Speaker 1: We just needed someone to say go, Heighten told The
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Post in twenty sixteen. During his first term, President Donald
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Trump became enamored with the idea of creating a new
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branch of the military, championing the idea at rallies. I said,
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maybe we need a new force. We'll call it the
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Space Force, Trump mused during the twenty eighteen speech at
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Marine Corps as Station Miramar in San Diego, adding, and
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I was not really serious, and then I said, what
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a great idea. Maybe we'll have to do that. A
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couple of months later, Trump ordered its creation in a
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surprise announcement that shocked even senior Pentagon leaders. Much of
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the public didn't take it seriously. Trump's re election campaigns
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started selling Space Force merchandise. Netflix boothed the service in
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a comedy series starring Steve Carell. Comedians used the Space
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Force as bottom poking funded everything from the uniforms, insignia
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and term Guardians, which they assumed came from the film
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Guardians of the Galaxy parenthesis, it was actually derived from
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the original Air Force Space Command matto from nineteen eighty three,
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Guardians of the High Front Tier in Parenn. The culture
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soldiers and Marines carry rifles, drive tanks, and kick down doors.
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Air Force men fly jets, Navy sailors navigate the seas.
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Guardians are a whole different breed of US service member.
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They work more with computers than firearms. They fight from
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secure offices that resemble Silicon Valley tech startups that are
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kept chili so that racks of computer service don't overheat.
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Guardians are older and better educated they're their counterparts. Twice
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as many enlisted guardians have a degree from a four
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year college than enlisted service members in the rest of
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the military, according to a study by Tarad Harrison, an
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analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. The same percentage of
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senior enlisted guardians have advanced degrees as do officers in
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the Marine Corps. The what sets guardian apart the most
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from their peers is that every of the Space Force
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has a top secret security clearance, driving a culture of
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secrecy that in some respects makes the branch more like
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the CIA and National Security Agency than others in the military.
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Many of their emissions take place in highly secured SCIFs.
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This is persensitive compartmented information facilities used for handling classified information.
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As part of their training, guardians crawled through mud like soldiers,
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but they also take classes in space electronic warfare, orbitobal
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Engagement and maneuvers, and Space Intelligence Fundamentals, a curriculum that
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teaches directed energy weapon threats, kinetic energy weapons threats, high
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altitude nuclear detonation, and orbitable tax slash welfare. They are
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taught to follow directions from their superiors, but given that
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they are operating in a highly technical realm, also to
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question them and to find their own solutions. Salzman said
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early in his tenure as head of the Space Force
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that the spirit of the Guardian's cores was to analyze
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and debate new ideas and perpetually challenge the status quote.
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When presented with a problem, they have the courage and
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persistence to experiment, fail, learn, adapt, and innovate. The Space
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Force has gone so far as to enlist the help
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of science fiction writers and futurists to brainstorm with military
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leaders about the future of space war. I am looking
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for additional ideas and inspiration to then figure out how
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I can extrapolate current technology, Major General Stephen Purdy, Jr.
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The Space Force officer responsible for research and Development, said
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in an interview. Space Force leaders have also questioned whether
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the physical fitness is as important for guardians to do
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their job compared with other military recruits. Saltsman said the
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Space Force shouldn't automatically reject recruits with say asthma. In
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the Army, a recruit with the condition might be rejected,
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but is that.
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Speaker 2: True for the Space Force? He said, We're different.
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Speaker 1: We fight from home. We fight from air conditioned rooms.
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Why wouldn't we think differently about that, Saltzman said. Despite
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the progress that Space Force has made, problems with its
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culture have already emerged that hinder its ability to fight.
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The secret of nature of the Space Force can be
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prohibitive and stifling. Harrison, the EIA analyst, said, cutting guardians
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off from the rest of the industry and world, it
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isolates people from what's going on in the commercial sector.
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He said, if you're working in a scif you don't
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have access to the Internet, we're cutting people off when
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they're on the job and they're pictures of the computers
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and people in the center itself. In Hawaii, overclassification is
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still a hindrance, said Mike Dickey, a retired Air Force
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colonel who served as Chief Architect of the Space Force
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and is a founding partner of Laura Nova, a strategic
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advisory firm. And where it comes to the fall I
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think is talking to international partners. It slows things down,
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Dicky said. The Blue Team day turned to night and
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the Blue Team had been at their computers for more
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than six hours waiting for the Red Team, who saws
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five one hundred and twenty seventh Space at wrecas to strike.
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Tech Sergeant Christopher Aguan stifled. Ayong fidgeted in his chair,
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tucked his hand under his armpits to keep them warm
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as stacks of computer service blinked with activity. Nearby, on
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the screen before him were squiggly lines quivering like an
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ekg the heartbeat of the satellite signals he and another operator,
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Senior Airman Mike Horreros, were tasked to monitor as a
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crew trief supervised. Suddenly, Aguan noticed the satellite signal began
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to spike abnormally, like a heart patience arrmia. It was
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a possible attack, an electromatic interference on the Space Force's
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satellite systems crew chief, possibly am I, he said, sitting
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up attempting to geolocate. His job was not just to
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detect the interference, but to use a system and dubbed
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bounty hunter to determine where it was coming from. Moments later,
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the Red Team unleashed an attack on another signal, but
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its origin was still not clear. Still geo locating, both
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signals were turned to normal before US forces could determine
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the aggressor's location, and so it went for the next
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hour a barrage of quick strikes that sent the Blue
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Team scrambling. Crew Chief possibly am I. They called out
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again and again, and they came in rapid fire like
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shots from an invisible SNIPERK frustrated again, said finally, I'm
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going to restart the system. But soon the Red team
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was gone. On this day, the bad guys won. Next
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article Most Americans critical of Trump on crime, economy, and
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other issues poll fines The Post IPSO survey comes paints
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a downbeat picture of Trump's presidency as Americans disapprove of
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its performance by double digit margins on a broad range
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of issues. By Patrick Spiddick, Emily Guskin, and Scott Clement.
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As President Donald Trump makes plans to send the National
26:19
Guard to cities beyond Washington, he is facing a public
26:24
critical of his handling of crime and his use of
26:27
the military to combat it, According to a Washington Post
26:31
IPSOS poll. The survey finds that Americans disapprove of Trump's
26:36
performance on crime by a ten percentage point margin and
26:40
oppose him ordering the National Guard to other cities by
26:43
a full point margin. However, Americans say they trust Republicans
26:49
over Democrats on crime by a two to one margin,
26:52
showing how the issue is not a clear political winner
26:56
for the president's critics. Republicans all also hold advantages over
27:01
Democrats on the economy and immigration, though a majority still
27:05
say they want Democrats to control the next Congress as
27:09
a check on Trump. The findings coming up all that
27:14
overall paints the downbeat picture of Trump's presidency eight months
27:18
into his second term, despite a slight uptick in his
27:22
overall approval rating compared with April, Americans disapprove of his
27:27
performance on a broad range of issues, the economy, immigration,
27:32
foreign wars, and all by double digit margins. In fact,
27:37
crime is his best issue, with fifty four percent of
27:41
Americans disapproving of his performance on it and fifty four
27:45
percent approving. A fifty five percent majority disapprove of Trump's
27:51
handling of immigration, while forty four percent approve. More than
27:56
six and ten Americans disapprove of how Trump is handled tariffs,
28:01
about six ten disapprove of how he's handling both the
28:05
economy and the Israel Gahaza and Russia Ukraine was Overall,
28:12
fifty six percent of Americans disapprove of the way he
28:15
is handling his job, while forty three percent approve a
28:19
negative thirteen point margin. It's a slight improvement over his
28:24
approval rating in a Washington Post ABC News IPSO survey
28:29
that was done in April, which found adults disapproved of
28:33
his job performance by a sixteen point margin. The latest
28:37
survey did not offer an explicit no opinion option for
28:42
the job approval question because many respondents who selected it
28:47
in April expressed opinions about their president and the follow
28:51
up open ended question, there is at least one broad
28:56
area of agreement in the poll. About seven and in
29:00
ten Americans say they think Trump is making fundamental changes
29:04
to the country, regardless of where they stand on his actions.
29:08
About nine to ten Republicans say Trump is making fundamental changes,
29:13
along with about six and ten Democrats and independents. The
29:18
numbers on the economy could be especially concerning for Republicans
29:23
as they prepare to defend their congressional majorities in next
29:27
year's mid term elections. More than two thirds of Americans
29:31
describe the state of the economy as not so good
29:35
or Paul. Asked about control of the next Congress, a
29:40
majority fifty three percent say they would like to see
29:43
Democrats in charge to act as a check on Trump
29:49
forty two percent, so they hope the GOP remains in
29:52
the majority to support Trump's agenda. Democrats eleven point advantage
29:57
on this question among voting age adults narrows to nine
30:01
points among registered voters. The party that holds the White
30:06
House historically struggles in midterm elections, and Republicans are defending
30:11
an especially narrow majority in the House. Those challenges have
30:16
led Trump to pressure red states across the country to
30:19
redraw their congressional district boundaries to give his parting war
30:24
of an advantage, a demand that has touched off a
30:27
national partisan battle over redistricting. Trump has also been hunting
30:32
for an edge on the economy by waging a month's
30:35
long pressure campaign to persuade the Federal Reserve to cut
30:39
interest rates. The Central Bank started doing so instant, although
30:44
the survey spelled trouble for other components of Trump's economic agenda,
30:49
including his sweeping global tariffs and the mass of tax
30:53
and spending law he signed this summer. Crime and immigration,
31:00
Trump dispatched the National Guard in the nation's capital last month,
31:04
and unknownced last week that he would utilize it next
31:08
in Memphis in the week since the d c deployment.
31:12
He has toyed with sending troops to several other cities,
31:15
most frequently mentioning Chicago. In the poll, forty seven percent
31:23
of Americans disapproved and thirty seven percent approve of his
31:27
actions in Washington, which also included temporarily taking control of
31:32
the local police department. But the public is a little
31:36
more divided on the possibility of him sending troops into
31:39
other cities, with forty two percent supporting the idea and
31:43
forty six percent opposing it. Trump's earlier deployment of the
31:48
National Guard to Los Angeles over the objection of California
31:52
Governor Gassen Gavin Newsom, Democrat, swiftly drew legal challenges. A
31:59
federal judge rule this month that the Trump administration willfully
32:03
broke a law that prohibits the military from carrying a
32:06
domestic law enforcement. More broadly, the poll shows that sixty
32:12
two percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his
32:16
authority as president, while thirty six percent think he has
32:19
acted properly. That is a larger divide compared with the
32:24
survey in April, when Americans split sixty forty on the
32:28
question asked the same question about former President Joe Biden.
32:32
In the latest poll, sixty three percent said he acted
32:36
within his authority, while thirty four percent say he went
32:40
beyond his authority. Trump has also targeted America's major cities
32:46
with ramped up efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, including in Chicago,
32:52
where Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Midway Blitz this month.
33:00
The survey finds Americans are roughly split on whether immigrants
33:05
deported by the administration should have been removed. Forty seven
33:10
percent of adults say nearly all or most immigrants who
33:15
were removed should have been deported, while fifty percent say
33:19
less than half or hardly any of the deportations should
33:24
have occurred. As with crime, most Americans disapprove of Trump's
33:29
handling of immigration, but more say they trust Republicans to
33:33
address it over Democrats, or nearly three to ten say
33:36
they trust neither party. The economy, there appears to be
33:42
more political opportunity for Democrats on the economy. Not only
33:47
do sixty eight percent of Americans have a negative view
33:51
of the economy, according to the poll, but almost as
33:54
many say it is a bad time to find a
33:58
quality job in America. Positive ratings of the economy have
34:03
risen five points since April, but are a little different
34:06
from a year ago, when Trump leveraged economic frustrations to
34:10
win a second term. Republicans have a smaller advantage on
34:16
the issue in the poll than they do on crime
34:18
and immigration. Thirty nine percent trust Republicans while thirty two
34:23
percent trust Democrats. Adults disapprove of the way Trump is
34:29
handling tariffs, baring nearly two to one margin, unchanged from
34:33
the poll in April, which was in days after Trump
34:37
first announced far reaching tariffs and promised they would soon
34:41
force trade agreements that would boost the economy. He has
34:45
since unveiled trade deals with Europe, Japan, and other countries,
34:49
but has yet to make agreements with China, India, Canada,
34:53
or Mexico. The survey finds seventy percent of Americans think
34:58
Trump's tariffs are making the cost of things they by
35:01
go up, compared to five percent who think they are
35:04
making the costs go down and twenty five percent who
35:08
think they're not making much difference. The pole finds forty
35:13
three percent of Americans think Trump's agenda will put the
35:16
economy on a weaker foundation for the long term, while
35:20
thirty one percent Predicted's agenda will put it on a
35:23
stronger foundation, and twenty percent say it is too soon
35:28
to say that deficit is virtually unchanged from the April pole.
35:33
Bothpublicans have voiced confidence that the tax and spending bill
35:37
that Trump signed into law in July will help the
35:40
economy as well as their mid term prospects, but the
35:44
poll shows that it remains unpopular, with the plurality forty
35:48
four percent saying they oppose the law, while twenty six
35:52
percent support it and twenty nine percent say they have
35:56
no opinion. Those figures are mostly unchanged from the last
36:00
post IPSOS poll in June, when the proposal was still
36:04
working its way through Congress. If there is encouraging political
36:10
news for Republicans in the survey, it is the numbers
36:13
showing Americans trust them more on the economy and immigration
36:17
than finding that Americans see Democrats is more ideologically at
36:21
a step. fIF four percent of Americans say they think
36:25
the political views of Democrats are too liberal, compared with
36:29
forty nine percent who say the views of the GOP
36:33
are two conservative. Both figures are up from a post
36:38
ABC poll making the same asking the same question in
36:42
twenty thirteen Foreign policy. Trump has spent recent months attempting
36:48
to broke a peace in Israel's war in Gaza and
36:51
Russia's war with Ukraine, but the poll finds Americans disapprove
36:56
of his handling of each situation by nineteen and twenty
36:59
two points, respectively. The survey also shows that Americans continue
37:05
to have a pessimistic view on the broader issue of
37:08
US leadership abroad. With Trump in charge, Forty six percent
37:12
of Americans think Trump's leadership has gotten Weika Under Trump,
37:18
Forty six percent of Americans think America's leadership has gotten
37:22
Weika under Trump, while thirty six percent think it has
37:26
gotten stronger. The finding is nonetheless an improvement from the
37:30
April pole, when this splint was forty nine percent to
37:33
thirty four percent. The latest post IPSOS poll was conducted
37:38
online September eleven through fifteen among twenty five hundred and
37:43
thirteen US adults. The sample was drawn through the ipso's
37:48
Knowledge Panel, an ongoing panel of US households recruited by
37:53
mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin
37:58
of era of plus or minus x to percentage points.
38:04
RFK Junior's Vaccine advisors add hurdle to getting COVID shots.
38:11
CDC Vaccine advisors on ACP voted to recommend people consulted
38:18
clinician before getting a coronavirus shot, shifting from a universal
38:22
recommendation for people ages six months and older. Not Lena
38:28
h Son, Rachel Rubin, and David o'vali. And there's a
38:33
picture of nine members around a U shaped table with
38:40
a huge screen saying Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice a
38:45
huge screen with that on front with a blue line
38:48
across the top for CDC.
38:53
Speaker 2: Atlanta.
38:55
Speaker 1: A federal vaccine advisory panel unanimously voted Friday on a
38:59
more restrictive approach to coronavirus vaccines by recommending that everyone
39:05
consult a clinician before getting a shot. The shift creates
39:09
a complication for Americans who went for years were able
39:13
to get a free shot without having to justify it.
39:17
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Census for
39:21
Disease Control and Prevention eliminated its past recommendations for all
39:26
Americans ages six months and older to receive annual coronavirus shots. Instead,
39:33
it recommends the vaccines under shared clinical decision making, meaning
39:39
people should first consult a medical professional. The full practical
39:44
implications are unclear. A proposal to encourage states and localities
39:49
to explicitly require prescriptions for coronavirus vaccines narrowly failed. There's
39:57
going to be some confusion in some fall that has
40:00
to get sorted, and it could ultimately be that people
40:04
in some states face some bearians that they didn't, said
40:08
Jennifer Kates as, senior vice president at KFF, a health
40:12
policy research organization, adding in general, everyone will have an
40:18
extra step that they haven't had before. The Food and
40:23
Drug Administration in August narrowed approval of updated coronavirus vaccines
40:29
to those aged sixty five and older and people with
40:32
underlying conditions that elevate their risk for severe disease. The
40:38
ACFP recommendations appear to be more restrictive for seniors by
40:43
requiring medical consultations, and less restrictive for otherwise healthier young people.
40:51
Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill is not expected to take
40:55
action on the committee's recommendations until next week, according to
40:59
a federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
41:03
Because of ongoing discussions, legal experts and health care provadis
41:09
were trying to assess in real time what the changes mean,
41:13
particularly at the pharmacy counter. The CDC website includes pharmacist
41:20
in the list of health care provadies who can be
41:23
involved in discussing vaccines with patients. Other vaccines have been
41:27
recommended under shared clinical decision making, including coronavirus vaccines for
41:33
healthy children under a CDC policy changed in spring. A
41:38
spokeswoman for CBS, the largest pharmacy chain, said that its
41:42
pharmacists can consult patients about coronavirus vaccines and are waiting
41:47
to implement the recommendations once the CDC director signs off.
41:54
It is not something that is out of the realm
41:57
or training for pharmacists, and it's something they're comfortable doing,
42:01
said Bridget Groves, the vice president of Professional Affairs at
42:06
the American Pharmacist Association. But access for Americans could be
42:11
complicated because pharmacist would no longer be instructed to give
42:16
the shop automatically to anyone who wants it. It's just
42:20
a pure and simple workflow issue, said Richard Hughes Fourth,
42:25
a former vice president of public policy at coronavirus vaccine
42:30
manufacturer Maderna, who teaches vaccine law at George Washington University
42:36
Law School. Joseph Hiblind, a neuroscientist on the panel, said
42:42
nearly a third of Americans who don't have ready access
42:45
to a primary health care bravader, with even greater difficulty
42:50
in rural areas, which would impair their ability to have
42:54
a risk benefited discussion with a doctor before getting vaccinated.
43:00
Henry Bernstein, a pediatrician who assisted the panel's coronavirus working
43:05
group and objected to its recommendations, said the default decision
43:09
is to vaccinate all patients that consent when the CDC
43:14
makes a routine age or risk based recommendation. The recommendations
43:20
with shared clinical decision making are perceived differently, he said,
43:26
with no fault, and vaccination is often interpreted as optional.
43:34
Ritzif Levi, the ACIP panelist who leads the coronavirus vaccine
43:40
work group, has previously called for a halt to mRNA
43:44
coronavirus vaccines, said the group wanted to address communicating risks
43:50
and uncertainties of the shots to patients more consistently. Some
43:55
panelists agree that patients should be better educated about the
43:58
risks and benefits. Vv added that requiring consultations with health
44:04
care providers, continues to ensnare the vaccine will be offered
44:08
to ensure the vaccine will be offered for free. Lev
44:13
gave a presentation where he cast oe on the CDC,
44:17
arguing he does not believe the agency appropriately acknowledges safety concerns.
44:24
Do we have a culture of safety, asked Lev, professor
44:27
of Operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
44:33
Speaker 2: What would it take.
44:34
Speaker 1: For us to acknowledge that there is a problem. Lev's
44:38
presentation prompted an unusual counter presentation from a group of
44:43
scientists who served on the committee's coronavirus vaccine work group
44:47
that argued the vaccines have been carefully evaluated at every
44:51
stage and are important to increasing population immunity. Simple stable
44:58
recommendations can increase vaccine coverage. Bernstein said, COVID nineteen vaccines
45:05
are highly safe and effective. Representatives of medical associations and
45:12
other health officials have blasted the advisors, all appointed by
45:16
Health and Human Services Secretary of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
45:20
As peddling misleading and false claims. The panel also voted
45:25
to push the CDC to consider adding language for patients
45:29
and medical providers that would describe in more detail the
45:33
risks and uncertainties of the vaccine, some of which medical
45:37
experts say are misleading, including about inflammation of the heart
45:42
muscle and vaccination during pregnancy. Medical associations and state health
45:47
officials that continue to broadly recommend coronavirus vaccines say they
45:52
have been well studied and are safe and effective, a
45:56
phrase that Livy says public health officials should be away from.
46:02
The number of false statements made that this ACIP meeting
46:06
are practically too numerous to keep track up, said Peter Marx,
46:11
who serves as the nation's top vaccine regulator before he
46:14
was hoosted in March, adding there were so many that
46:19
they contaminated the several true statements made terribly confusing reality.
46:26
Some Americans have already faced challenges getting coronavirus vaccines that
46:30
became available last month because many states required CDC approval
46:34
to allow pharmacies to administer vaccines. Most of those states
46:39
have since relaxed their restrictions, but some doctors and pharmacies
46:43
have continued to refrain from offering the shot until the
46:46
CDC weighs in Free access to coronavirus vaccines is likely
46:52
to continue for most Americans. AHIP, a major health insurance
46:57
trade group, issued a statement Tuesday, committing to covering the
47:02
cost through the end of twenty twenty six, and vaccines
47:06
recommended under share clinical decision making must be covered by insurers,
47:12
although there has been confusion about those rules for various vaccines.
47:17
HHS said public health insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid
47:23
will continue to pay for the shots. The high stakes
47:27
decision affecting access to coronavirus vaccines capped off a lengthy
47:32
two day ACIP meeting on Thursday. The Vaccine Advisors said
47:38
they planned to review vaccines given during pregnancy and childhood,
47:43
escalating the scrutiny of immunization policy. Under these leadership, The
47:51
advisors voted Thursday to stop recommending a combined measles, mumps
47:55
rebella and chicken pox vaccine toddlers. They also voted to
48:00
approve a contradictory plan to still provide the shot through
48:04
a federal program and reverse themselves the next morning. They
48:09
also voted Friday to indefinitely delay a plan to eliminate
48:12
a thirty four year recommendation for hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
48:19
Medical groups said there was no reason to revisit a
48:22
vaccine policy credited with drastically reducing infections from the liver
48:27
damaging virus and nearly eliminating maternal fetal transmission. Several panelists
48:35
questioned routine immunization of infants when most babies are not
48:39
at risk of contracting the virus. Before the vote on
48:43
coronavirus shots, the panelist heard information from the CDC detailing
48:49
extensive safety and effectiveness data. The vaccine advisors brought up
48:54
allegations of contaminated vaccines and a recently retracted study indicating
49:01
the vaccine induced autism like behaviors in rats. Kirk Milhoan,
49:08
a pediatric cardiologist who has previously said the use of
49:12
mRNA vaccine should stop for now, said he was concerned
49:16
about the pharmologic rigor of the product. FDA Senior Adviser
49:22
Tracy Beth Hoage said the agency takes the issue in
49:26
public safety seriously. Martin Kodorff, the committee's chair, questioned data
49:33
related to vaccination in pregnant women and whether the shot
49:37
led to birth defects. Viiza has said the vaccine maker
49:41
does not believe the events were related to the vaccine,
49:45
and the rate seen in the study match what would
49:47
be expected in the general population. A company official told
49:52
him that the congenital abnormalities occurred during the first trimesta
49:57
and the women in the study received the vaccine later
50:00
in pregnancy. The committee's two day gathering was chaotic, with
50:05
members at time confused about what they were voting on.
50:09
In CDC's staff having to explain basic processes for analyzing
50:14
data and recommending vaccines, health is not being served and
50:19
trust is at the window, said Anne Shushott, a former
50:23
top CDC official who served at the agency through seven
50:27
administrations and nine CDC directors. Major medical associations and several
50:34
states run by Democratic governors have issued their own recommendations
50:38
for Americans to receive coronavirus vaccines if they are at
50:43
elevated risk or want protection. Anticipating a more restrictive approach
50:48
under Kennedy, health officials under President Donald Trump have argued
50:54
there is insufficient data to justify sweeping recommendations for all
50:59
Americans to get at the shots, and that the United
51:02
States was an outlier. Federal health officials had already been
51:07
weighing whether to limit recommendations for coronavirus shot to older
51:11
adults and high risk individuals, but some public health experts
51:16
have said they believed the rhetoric from Kennedy and his
51:18
allies undermines public confidence in a shot that studies have
51:23
deemed safe and effective. Last year's updated coronavirus vaccine provided
51:31
additional protection against COVID medical visits across all age groups,
51:37
according to a CDC presentation to the advisors posted online
51:42
ahead of the meeting. It also shows rates of coronavirus
51:46
associated hospitalization are highest among the youngest and oldest age groups.
51:52
Roughly thirteen percent of children were up to date with
51:55
their coronavirus vaccination as of April twenty twenty five. According
51:59
to one of the presentations, vaccination rates improved for older
52:04
adults during the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five season.
52:08
More than forty four percent of those sixty five and
52:11
older were up to date with their shots. Cody Meisner,
52:15
a panel member, said he was worried the CDC's credibility
52:20
was at stake. If the agency makes a recommendation that
52:23
Americans are not going to follow, at what point does
52:27
the slow uptake of a vaccine influence CDs CEE recommendations,
52:32
he asked, adding it's almost like prohibition. No one was
52:37
supposed to drink alcohol, but people did. Kennedy has a
52:43
lengthy history of disparaging vaccines and falsely called the coronavirus
52:47
vaccine the deadliest vaccine ever made. Kennedy has already directed
52:55
changes to the coronavirus shots, urging the CDC in made
52:58
to soften its recommends otherwise healthy children and pregnant women
53:03
to receive coronavirus vaccines. Last June, Kennedy urged the entire
53:10
membership and later replaced the panel with hand oh Last June,
53:15
Kennedy purged the entire membership and later replaced the panel
53:19
with hand picked advisors, including five announced Monday. The newly
53:25
reconstituted committee has come under intense scrutiny from lawmakers on
53:30
Capitol Hill. Earlier this week, Susan Minarez, who was fired
53:35
as CDC chief last month, told senators that Kennedy directed
53:40
her to commit to approving every ACIP recommendation. She also
53:46
said Kennedy told her she needed to be on board
53:50
with coming changes to the childhood immunization schedule. Trump health
53:56
officials did not deliver a presentation they had planned and
54:00
to link coronavirus vaccines to the deaths of twenty five children,
54:04
as they consider it limiting which Americans should get the shots,
54:08
which The Washington Post previously reported. The move had alarmed
54:14
career scientists, who said that coronavirus vaccines have been extensively studied,
54:20
including in children, and that the dangers of the virus
54:23
itself are being underplayed. Can't read the whole article, but
54:29
it's one that I'm sitting here drinking a cup of
54:32
coffee while reading The Washington Post, and this article is
54:36
entitled Lawmakers introduced bill to.
54:40
Speaker 2: Kill tariffs on coffee.
54:43
Speaker 1: The bipartisan legislation would give coffee a carbate from President
54:47
Donald Trump's tariffs. By Anna Lisroy. Representatives Don Bacon, Republican
54:54
of Nebraska and Roe Conna, Democrat of California produced a
55:00
bill Friday to exclude one everyday product from President Donald
55:05
Trump's tariffs, coffee. Their bipartisan legislation would exempt coffee products
55:12
from any tariff imposed after January nineteenth, twenty twenty five,
55:17
the day before Trump came into office. That exemption would
55:21
apply to roasted and decaffeinated coffee as well. As coffee husks, skins,
55:27
and other drinks or substitutes containing coffee, essentially rolling back
55:32
the White House's tariffs for coffee products. Bacon and Conna
55:37
said they focused on coffee because they want to help
55:39
Americans save on a daily staple, but they also hope
55:44
the legislation, which has a slim shot of passing Congress,
55:49
let alone being signed into law by Trump, will encourage
55:53
tariff conversations that are grounded and shared experiences. They say
55:59
that that sort of dialogue will help build opposition to
56:03
the administration's tariffs. If Americans are like, Okay, this coffee tax,
56:10
we don't like this, Well, what about the fact that
56:13
now we have a tariff that is causing your hamburger's
56:16
price to go up, That's causing the price of bananas
56:19
to go up, apples are up. We can talk about
56:22
it more broadly in terms of the prices going up
56:25
because of tariffs. Conna said in an interview, why are
56:30
we tariffing American citizens and something that we don't even grow.
56:35
It doesn't make sense. Bacon said the first round of
56:39
Trump's sweeping tariffs, taxes that American businesses pay to import
56:44
foreign goods took effect April fifth. The tariffs applied to
56:48
products from almost every country among the United States top
56:52
trading partners. The rates range from ten to fifty percent.
56:57
Few places in the US have the rights so well
57:00
and climate to grow coffee making Americans reliant on imported
57:05
beings from countries such as Brazil, Columbia, Nicaragua, and Vietnam.
57:11
Those countries now face tariff rates of fifty percent, ten percent,
57:15
eighteen percent, and twenty percent, respectively. Economic data suggests these
57:21
tariffs have influenced the price of coffee. Coffees have increased
57:25
nearly twenty one percent since his time last year, according
57:29
to the Consumer Price Index. Coffee is one of the
57:34
consumer goods most affected by Trump's tariffs, said Alberto Cavallo,
57:39
a professor at Harvard Business School and co director of
57:43
its Pricing Lab, which has modeled the impact of US tariffs.
57:49
Cavallo said, coffee is one of those types of goods
57:53
where we've seen the biggest price increases. The timing coincides
57:58
with the tariffs. It's a change felt across millions of households.
58:04
Two thirds of American adults drink coffee every day, according
58:09
to the National Coffee Association, and with that I will
58:15
ring off and thank you for listening for to Day's
58:20
Washington Post of the twentieth of September, for twenty twenty five.
58:25
I am going to drink my coffee. Please continue listening
58:29
to programming on Radio AID. Have a good weekend. I'll
58:33
be back Thursday.
58:35
Speaker 2: Bye.